Environment

A series of low pressure systems from the North Pacific have been hovering over Southeast Alaska this month, causing higher temperatures and rain.

“It’s the track of these low pressure systems that have been moving in,” says National Weather Service forecaster Pete Boyd in Juneau. “As we get some ridging over the panhandle, we’ve got these southerly winds, which has just been moving up this warm air. And with this current system, it’s pretty much raining across the entire Southeast Alaska panhandle.”

In 18 of the first 21 days of December, the high temperature in Juneau was above the average high for that date. Only twice did the low temperature dip below normal. The weather service reports Juneau’s average temperature this month has been 34.3 degrees. That’s almost 4 degrees above normal.

Boyd says the same conditions have created above average temperatures in SouthCentral and the Interior this month.

“The same pattern’s been affecting Southeast Alaska and the Interior as well,” he says.

And while he’s not ready to declare a white Christmas, Boyd says temperatures should drop this weekend.

“We have some indication that it could be a rather cold air mass,” Boyd says. “But these models, we don’t have exactly very high confidence in them right now. But we do see temperatures dropping below freezing, looking to probably be just in the mid to upper 20s.”

Strong winds are expected to continue through Friday. Sustained southeast winds 15 to 25 miles per hour, with gusts to 40 miles per hour Thursday evening. The same Friday morning, until winds decrease to 10 to 20 miles per hour in the afternoon.

Douglas has a new Treadwell Mine Historic Park.

The City and Borough Assembly Monday night named the historic district within Savviko Park after the old mine. The district begins at the southern end of Sandy Beach and ends just north of the 1917 Treadwell Mine cave-in site.

The Savviko Park master plan has a recreation zone, including the ball fields, as well as Sandy Beach and the Treadwell Historic District. The CBJ Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee previously recommended the district become a historic park.

The Treadwell Historic Preservation and Restoration Society plans to put up interpretive historical signs in the area, and protect the Treadwell stamp mill and other town-site structures.

It appears an aviation marker ball is to blame for Sunday night’s power outage in downtown Juneau.

 

The red ball wore through a transmission line and it broke, knocking out power to about 3,800 customers between 6 and 8 p.m.

Alaska Electric Light and Power crews were able to restore electricity in less than two hours by rerouting energy through a distribution cable that runs along the Juneau-Douglas Bridge.

Crews Monday figured out the cause and will analyze the transmission line more closely, says A-E-L & P spokeswoman Deb Ferreira.

“The amount of wind that’s in that channel certainly could cause the ball to move, wearing through the line,” Ferreira says. “But we’ll know better when we actually have it here and we’re able to look at it.”

She says a new transmission line will be installed this morning.

“They’re running a brand new transmission line, and then there’ll be some splicing and tensioning to get it to where it needs to be and at that point they will be able to re-energize the line. But they expect they’ll be able to finish all of that by noon,” she says.

Ferreira says A-E-L and P did not burn any diesel during the outage.

Power has been restored to all of Juneau, after parts of downtown and Douglas were in the dark for a couple hours last night (Sunday).

Alaska Electric Light and Power reports a pair of feeder lines failed, causing about 4-thousand customers to be without electricity. The outage began just after 6 p.m. All areas were restored by about 8 p.m.

High winds are believed to be responsible for the feeder lines’ failure.

Two other acquaintances of a Juneau guide are now being charged with hunting and fishing violations.

Blake B. Coombs, 27, of Kennewick, Washington is being charged with negligently establishing a black bear bait station without a permit and overfishing of halibut. That’s for baiting bears behind the house of Juneau guide Michael Patrick Duby and falsifying a halibut catch record for two undercover officers taken out on Duby’s boat.

Duby was owner and operator of FishHunter Charters and Coombs was a deckhand when the alleged violation occurred on June 26, 2009.

Benjamin Olson, 24, of Juneau is being charged with illegally taking a beaver while out on bear hunting trip with Duby on April 30, 2009 on Admiralty Island, and illegally possessing and transporting the beaver.

Arraignment for Coombs and Olson is planned for Thursday afternoon.

That now makes a total of six people implicated during an investigation into alleged poaching activities in the Juneau area.

Michael Patrick Duby’s brothers and father — Jason, Joel, and Michael W. Duby – already face charges related to bear baiting, bear hunting, and sport fish guiding without a proper license. A Hawaiian man, Bradley Deffenbaugh, has also been charged with falsifying a sealing certificate for a black bear taken while out hunting on the Juneau road system with the younger Duby.

Andrew Peterson of the Attorney General’s Office of Special Prosecutions would only say that the investigation is ongoing. He declined to say whether further charges are pending.

A client of a Juneau guide is the latest to be implicated in possible poaching activities in the area.

Bradley Deffenbaugh, 51, of Honolulu, Hawaii has been charged with a single count of negligently falsifying information required on a sealing certificate or temporary sealing form. That’s a class ‘A’ misdemeanor.

A ‘not guilty’ plea was entered during an arraignment on Tuesday. A jury trial is tentatively planned for late February.

Alaska Fish and Wildlife investigators allege that Deffenbaugh killed a black bear near the end of the Juneau road system, traveling by vehicle with guide Michael Duby on June 4, 2009. According to charging documents, Deffenbaugh “signed a sealing form certifying that the bear was taken south of Lyn (sic) Canal with the use of a boat on June 3, 2009”.

When interviewed by investigators, Deffenbaugh admitted to signing the sealing certificate, but he did not know why it stated that the bear was killed on the previous day with a boat.

The charge against Deffenbaugh was filed by the Attorney General’s Office of Special Prosecutions which has also filed charges against Michael Duby’s brothers, Jason W. Duby and Joel M. Duby, both of Washington state, for alleged bear hunting and sport fishing violations. Their father, Michael W. Duby, is also being charged with providing guide services without a license.

Michael Patrick Duby is currently awaiting sentencing on a federal charge for selling migratory bird parts over the internet for use as fly-tying supplies. But no charges related to the bear hunting have been filed against him yet by the State of Alaska.

Michael Patrick Duby and Michael W. Duby were already sentenced in September for five years of poaching elk, deer, and antelope in Montana.

According to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle newspaper, Michael Patrick Duby received a 20-year suspended prison sentence and was ordered to pay $15,500 in restitution. Michael W. Duby was sentenced to two six-month suspended jail sentences and three years probation for unlawful possession of game animals.